Brad Hunt is wrapping up his second season as an assistant track and field and cross country coach at Wake Forest. Prior to joining the Demon Deacons, Hunt spent six seasons at the University of Virginia.
During the 2011 cross country season, Hunt guided sophomore Nicole Irving to All-ACC and All-Southeast Region honors for the first time of her career. Additionally, the men's squad placed seventh overall at the ACC Championship meet, where Hunt led junior Garret Drogosch to a career-best 8k time of 23:59.9 at the event en route to an 18th-place finish overall.
Both the men's and women's cross country teams also received NCAA Division I All-Academic Status during the 2011 season, and the following four Demon Deacons were named to the All-Academic Cross Country Team: Irving, Drogosch, Paul Loeser and Tom Finneran.
In his first season with the Demon Deacons in 2010, Hunt helped the men's cross country team capture a sixth-place finish at the ACC Championships, which was their highest finish since the 2005 season.
While at Virginia, Hunt helped to establish the men's and women's distance crew as strong contenders in the ACC. At the 2010 ACC Indoor Championships, Hunt saw the men's and women's distance medley relays sweep the conference titles. During the 2008-09 campaign, Hunt saw the distance medley relay of Andrew Jesien, Meikle Paschal, Lance Roller and Sintayehu Taye earn All-America honors and smash the school record by over 6.5 seconds, with a time of 9:29.86. The mark stood as the fifth fastest time in the country during the 2009 indoor season. Hunt also helped eight athletes earn 14 All-ACC honors on the track.
Hunt helped coach the 2007-08 Distance Medley Relay of Alex Tatu, Jordan Orr, Brian Lee and Jesien to the ACC Championship Meet Record, en route to a conference title. In addition, he guided Huma Husain to the fastest 800m performance for a Cavalier in 20 years and saw Andrew Lobb and Orr earn All-ACC honors in the 800m. In 2006-07, he helped the Distance Medley Relay team of Lee, Orr, Tatu and Kevin McHale to All-America honors and had nine All-ACC performers.
Throughout his six year tenure at Virginia, the Cavalier men won three ACC titles in cross country and qualified for the NCAA meet during all six seasons, finishing in the top-15 on four different occasions. In 2008, Hunt saw Ryan Foster become the program's first-ever individual ACC Champion, while Emil Heineking - UVa's first two-time cross country All-American - followed that up with his first individual crown in 2009. In addition, the Cavalier women won the Southeast Regional in 2008.
Hunt played a large role in the recruiting process at Virginia, both in cross country and track and field. He helped sign multiple National Footlocker finalists, national and state record holders, high school All-Americans and individual state champions from Virginia, Connecticut, Iowa, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas.
Prior to Virginia, Hunt spent seven successful years at Kent State, where he served as coach for the middle distance runners and long sprinters. He was also an assistant cross country coach. While with the Golden Flashes, the track and field and cross country teams won six Mid-American Conference Championships in five years and sent 11 athletes to the NCAA Championships in 2005. That same year, Hunt's middle distance athletes set five school records, including a 7:26.61 mark in the 4x800m relay in the Championship of America at Penn Relays.
Under Hunt's tutelage, Mike Inge, the 2003 800m US Junior National Champion, earned two NCAA All-American honors at 800m, and finished ninth at the 2004 Olympic Trials in the 800m, posting a lifetime best time of 1:47.23.
A 1997 Kent State graduate, Hunt captained both the cross country and track teams his senior year. That year he helped the Golden Flashes to a second-place finish at the indoor championships, scoring in the 800m, the mile and the distance medley relay. At the outdoor meet, Hunt scored in the 800m, 1500m and the 1600m relay. He was named to the Academic All-MAC teams in all three seasons. Hunt continued his running career as a member of the Black Squirrel Track Club, posting a career-best 3:57.15 in the Memorial Day Road Mile in 1998.
In July of 2005, Hunt married the former Jill Morrill, a member of the first women's MAC Championship track and field team in Kent State history. Jill was also a member of two Illinois state championship cross country teams at Palatine High School. The couple has one daughter, Chloe, and one son, Sebastian. Sebastian was born one week after Hunt's arrival to Wake Forest in the fall of 2010.
